Not really answering your question at all, but it's great to see someone talking about UC on here. I personally am in the BSArch program at UC right and absolutely love it. The college of DAAP as a whole gets plenty of credit where it is due because of ID, Interior, etc, but only the Master's for Arch is ranked highly for some reason. Where did you get your Master's, CYCW?

Friendly6, thank you very much for sharing your information of Cincinnati. I got the master degree in China. And I am preparing the PHD application. So, I wanna get some information

No problem, CYCW. I am always more than delighted to share with others about my positive exprlerience at UC. At least for me in the Bachelor's program, there is a heavy emphasis on hands-on design principles and concepts. However, it only makes sense that by the time you're getting your PHD, the design knowledge is already present, leading to a more in-depth focus on theory. My design science prof told us that UC has the second best scores on the construction portion of the ARE. It seems as though the entire SoA is focused on producing well rounded architects in all aspects of the profession.

4 of my co-workers are from DAAP - they are good(ask too many questions though) - basically they become good at critical thinking - more so than others it seems.

CYCW, I'm also a DAAP student, former BSArch & currently MArch at UC.  The PhD program just started a few years ago but has some great students and a good community with dedicated professors.  History/theory/criticism, either of architecture or interior design, is the main focus of the program - see http://daap.uc.edu/academics/said/phd_arch.html for more details

If you have specific questions, the professor to contact would be Nnamdi Elleh, nnamdi.elleh@uc.edu - he's a great resource and works very closely with all the PhD students.  Best of luck!

Friendly6 Xenakis & JenC Thanks a lot for your sharing and answering. I‘ve got some informaition about the PHD faculty and their research.